Magnet school updates sound system

Offering an intensive two-year study in the fields of math, science and technology, the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) in Durham is distinguished as the world's first public residential magnet school catering to high school juniors and seniors demonstrating a strong aptitude and interest in this specialized curriculum.

For more than 10 years, NCSSM's John Freidrick Educational Technology Complex (ETC) Auditorium has served as the school's primary host venue for guest lecturers, theatrical productions and musical artists visiting the campus. When the ETC Auditorium's original sound system was finally deemed to be inadequate for the 650-seat, single-balcony theater, the school called upon local integrator John Koelle of North State Sound to design and install a new system.

Today, the venue features left and right loudspeaker arrays each comprised of eight L-ACOUSTICS KIVA enclosures flown adjacent to three-KILO hangs for extended low-frequency response. The compact system is efficiently powered and processed by only two four-channel LA8 amplified controllers.

"We knew we wanted a line source that would be accurate, affordable, and not too huge and overbearing for our room," says ETC Auditorium Technical Director Evan Rowe. "I was familiar with L-ACOUSTICS' larger systems, so when John Koelle told us about KIVA, it seemed like the right solution. We installed the rig based on our SOUNDVISION model, and even though this is a relatively challenging house to cover, it provides very even coverage throughout the entire room. As predicted, the system is extremely accurate--we get exactly what we feed into it out of the loudspeakers--and gain-before-feedback is absolutely huge compared to our old system. Everyone here loves it."

According to Koelle, "The KIVA solution, from a design and installation point of view, provided the ideal mix of compact enclosure size, low weight to ease rigging and flying complexities, and yet very impressive output and sound quality. Despite the very compact form factor, the KIVA line arrays produce excellent coverage and output in the house with minimal setup time and virtually no adjustments to the default LA8 presets."